 Is being an Asian foodie overrated? A group of Asian guys on the internet are debating this right now. Yeah, but as an Asian, is it not your duty to be a foodie? Maybe or maybe not. And people are debating this on the internet right now. This guy wrote a heated Reddit post basically saying being a foodie is overrated by Asians in the West. And this got the internet arguing all types of ways. So make sure you like, subscribe and turn on your notifications. But you know what has to do with food and is not overrated? Smala sauce. Check it out. There's nothing wrong with using smala sauce on your food because it makes it taste better. And it adds this cool tingly kick. Real quick, let me define foodie as by Oxford Dictionary a person with a particular interest in food, a gourmet. But what do you think he's referring to? He's not referring to being Gordon Ramsay, right? Right. No, I mean that'd be a high level chef but what he is referring to in this post and essentially to sum it up. He's talking about a group of Asians and it's mostly about Asian guys in this post but he does address Asian women. But Asian guys who just like to game, right? They'll play League of Legends and then go out and try to go get Korean barbecue, hot pot, then get boba afterwards. And he's saying that type of lifestyle and like valuing sweet tasty decadent foods all the time is not actually good for you and it's not making you a stronger man. So he is kind of taking on this. He's kind of saying that it's not as masculine to be a super big foodie. Right, and I believe he himself, the OP, the original poster was a foodie who got reformed, lost a bunch of weight and said, man, this was so much better for my life as an Asian guy. Right, because I guess for him, he imagines like ooh, I'm trying to seek out the yummiest restaurant. What's the newest restaurant? I want to try the new pho with the bone marrow. I want to try this new boba flavor, this new omakase as a guy, especially an Asian guy. You need to more focus on being masculine rather than eating delicious food. Here, real quick, let me just read some of it. That's what he said. Let me just read some of it. Based on my observations growing up with a bunch of different Asian brothers from different backgrounds, every single one of us is a sort of foodie. Yes, we have good taste and we love good food culture. But listen, guys, you just see Asian guys, Asian girls, they reference food in their dating profiles. It's the equivalent of white girls with tacos and margaritas. And just look at some of the tables at KBBQ next time you go. How many groups of three to five single guys are there stuffing their faces, looking like standard leagues of legend players? And man, I just know there's all these sausage fest groups of guys that hop on Discord, then they play League or Valorant, then they go stuff their faces with high calorie food and boba every weekend. And we just say it's because we're Asian foodies as an excuse for this terrible behavior. Wow. So he's kind of calling out Asian dudes for calling themselves foodies to mask the behaviors of kind of being like these. He's kind of framing it like loser guys. Hedonistic glutton's possibly right. He also goes on to say that being an Asian girl foodie and possibly being skinny fat is a lot different than being an Asian dude and being skinny fat. Like he said, it plays a lot better for the women than it does a man. Right. You're saying a man, if you don't have any muscle mass, you don't do physical activities, all you want to do is eat delicious food. As a dude, you're not going to get much out of life, but as a girl, you can still get something out of life doing that. Well, you could still be like pretty, right? Right, right, right. Or you could still be cute. Quick thoughts. This post made me laugh. And it made me laugh because of the way he characterized it. Have you seen these groups of people? I guess. I mean, Fred over here, Fred, did you game with your friends this weekend on Discord and then go get hot pot? He did. He did. Fred just told me. Fred's in shape, though. I can't speak for all of Fred's friends over here, though. I'm not saying Fred is the epitome of what this guy is talking about, but Fred did game and go get hot pot. But no, what I'm saying is I get what he's saying. I, you know, I consider myself a foodie, David, because I am into food. We are into food. We film a lot of the new restaurants. We are seeking things. We have tried more food than like 99% of people on Earth. We've eaten at thousands of restaurants. I've spent so much of my income on food. So I can't say I'm not a foodie, but I do think that there is different levels to it. And I think what he's more referring to, in my opinion, is the overall holistic lifestyle of just trying to kind of pack yourself with dopamine and chase these easy, delicious foods while you do these low physical activities. You know, like, specifically gaming and then go eating a bunch of Korean barbecue and then go getting bobe afterwards. You're intaking tons of calories and you didn't burn anything. He was blaming the whole stack on just the foodie-ism. But it's a stack of behaviors in a layered juxtaposition. We have a foodie crowd on our channel, kind of. Maybe not as much for the talking videos, but definitely the food videos. But what I'm saying is, I don't think there's anything wrong with enjoying food. It's really like the other stuff around it that I think he's talking about, that all combines together. Right. I think his tone of, like, persecution made me laugh, though. Yes. Like, just how serious he took it. Man, he was mad. I will say this, though. A lot of people who engage in foodie-ism, I don't think they engage in holistic, cultural, experiential foodie-ism. And that's really what we do, right? We watch videos on Georgia as a country, then go to, like, five different Georgian restaurants and try Kajipuri. It's not just like, hmm, cheese boat, cheese boat. Yeah, I mean, we're kind of exploring culture at the same time. So kind of like, you know, Anthony Bourdain and Gordon Ramsey, you would not call these guys losers because they're, you know, well, Gordon's a chef, too. They're all chefs. David Cheng opened up a bunch of spots. He's kind of fat, I would say, to be honest, but he's, like, lauded for being... He's a massive dude. I bet he's kind of strong, too. I will say this. There's so many levels of watching what you can eat as an Asian foodie. You know, you could cut out carb sugar and fried foods, or you could just... Don't take it as intense. Do the light version, Andrew. You cut out simple carbs. You cut out added sugars. And you cut out, like, battered and deep fried foods. So you can still eat pan-fried things. You know, there's, like, so many levels of how you can avoid this situation. Listen, I don't think it's that people out there don't understand how many calories are in boba. It's not that people are ignorant. What the OP is really talking about is this attitude from particularly Asian guys who want to kind of, like, be essentially the Asian-American version of what's happening in China, which is, like, lie flat, let it rot. You know, like, you're kind of... Tongping by line. Tongping by line. You're kind of giving up as a man, but you're using your foodie-ism and gamer-ism as an excuse to do it. As a patsy. As a... What is that word? Patsy. That's, like, in government conspiracies. Okay. I pop up that word. Yeah. So it's, like, using it as a cover or as an excuse and be like, oh, well, you know what? I just like foods, so I like exploring new foods, but it's, like, not to be honest, you actually just don't want to do a lot in life. That's kind of what I think he's getting at, actually. And you want to be in pro-Asian spaces and you might not feel comfortable outside of those pro-Asian spaces. There's nothing wrong with wanting to be in pro-Asian spaces, like pho, dim sum, BBQ, omacase, sushi buffets. But it's like, you can't mask your other voids in your life with that. Right. And it's kind of being like, oh, well, I'm proud of being Asian because I only go to Asian restaurants, but then you don't do anything else. That's an issue. Right. What are you doing for Asians? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think we should get in the comment section, and then I want to give my thoughts at the end of what people should be doing instead. Okay, somebody said that all Asians are sort of natural-born foodies. All Asians tend to talk about food more than most Western people. Obviously, not all Western people. I think Italian people really like to talk about food, people in the Mediterranean, but it sure seems like the average baseline for discussing food amongst Asians is higher than your average American. Yes. The average American might discuss the vibes or the decor, the ambiance, or the service at the restaurant. More than likely, Asians will get together at a spot and discuss the food quality. No, no. Definitely Asians love talking about the food taste. And no, it's true because Asian food is really good, so I don't blame Asians. That's in a weird way. It's kind of part of Asian culture to kind of nerd out on food or geek out on food. Be a little bit more geeky about food. Right, right, right. I mean, it's sort of like traveling. But it really has to do with, like, how much are you willing to deal with the unappealing aspects of traveling that make you like a true 10 out of 10 wanderluster traveler person. I think somebody just came through and said, listen, there's nothing wrong with enjoying food. Duh, like 97% of people on earth enjoy food. But you just can't make being a foodie be your whole personality. What do you think about that? But what if you made being a foodie your personality but you supplemented it with cooking, cultural studies, trying to learn other languages or learn other ping outside of your comfort zone? Yeah, yeah, I would say so. I mean, just like, you can't be a mukbang channel for life. You know what I mean? Like, you know how we never wanted to do mukbangs because to me, just eating food on camera solely is not interesting enough. I want to support businesses. I want to explore culture. I want to understand where these chefs come from because we all learn something from it and the audience learns something from it. But it's not that I only want to eat on camera. Watch me eat. Ooh, there's chicken. Watch me cut off the chicken bones. It's like, be more cultural, be more worldly. Not just ASMR or like sensory. Just like, like you said, like, just like, ooh, it's so crispy. It's so crispy. Exploring different restaurants, I think is a very easy, low barrier way to understand different cultures. We always said this. Right, it's like traveling the world without traveling the world, right? And you don't have to be in dangerous areas. You can go to a nice version of the restaurant in that culture and you can experience it on some level and ask a bunch of questions, be interested in it. You'll learn a little bit of it. Eight out of 10 times the purveyor of that country wants to talk to you about their country or their culture. Yeah, at least the owner does. I don't know if every server does, but yes. So that's why I think if you have the exploratory mindset then that is like kind of a cool masculine thing to have. But right, if you are following to the T, this stack of pattern of behaviors that the OP is referring to where you are getting like 6,000 calories on a Saturday after gaming a bunch, I agree. I think what he's saying is people are using those fatty, high caloric, delicious dinners as an excuse like they did something for their life. Like more than likely, you're right. You're probably going to those dinners with your friends and there's nothing wrong with going to dinner with your buddies after gaming. There's nothing wrong with that but you have to understand if you're all single guys then you're not going out meeting women or you're not doing something better for your life. Are you building a business? Are you doing anything that can better your life? Is that a club? I'm not saying you have to go to the club. You could be hitting the gym. You could be doing martial arts together. Yeah, I'm not saying you have to go hit the club. I'm just saying the OP is just wondering like, guys, you're giving up a lot of other stuff and you're feeling like you did something that night. Oh, I went out with my boys and had KBBQ. It's like... No, and they're usually sharing probably some sort of pop cultural critique or like derpy jokes amongst each other, right? Yeah. There's nothing wrong with that though. You have to understand how much of your life that takes up. So there was a bunch of people on Reddit that actually agreed with him that said, I put my foodie-ism on pause for a while or I stopped doing it or I cut it down by half. I lost body weight. I mean, body fat percentage. I saved money. I feel better about myself. Do you think that... How about just finding a balance, right? Yeah. Listen, if you want to eat delicious food for one of those meals a day, then just eat a little bit less early on in the day. Fast. Get an air fryer. Cook your own veggies. Do some protein shakes in the morning and then don't eat like lunch or breakfast. You know what I mean? And then for dinner, you can kind of treat yourself out with friends. That's what I would suggest. That's what I do. That's what I want to do. I want to, when we're here in the office at home, not eat very extravagantly and eat fairly cheaply and healthy and then we get to go out and either film or go on a date. You know what I mean? And go to a nice restaurant. That's... or a better delicious restaurant is what I'm saying. Right, right, right. I do think, listen, guys, you know, there was a couple other points we didn't get a touch on in the post. He was saying that Asians, we tend to store fat more in our faces. And we... A lot of Asian food is delicious, but it's kind of high sodium. That makes the cells retain water, makes you look more bloated. He was like saying all this stuff. It doesn't give you, you know... Yeah, I mean... The model looks or whatever. Sure, sure. I think there's definitely true to it, man. Ultimately, I'll say this. Listen, if you're using KBBQ, pho, dim sum, sushi, skewers, whatever you want to say, whatever foodie experience you're having really going out with your friends and having really spicy food, doing any sort of drinking foods together, you cannot use it as a security blanket. I think it's okay every once in a while. You cannot go to that as your safe space. You know what I mean? And I don't know if... It was never our intention to do that, but at one point, we probably did promote a lifestyle that was similar to what he's referring to. Not that that was our intention, but we probably did, right? I mean, I guess unintentionally, I guess by just... Yeah, I mean... Just by the sheer amount of food that we're eating on camera. But the intention was always to explore or support businesses. Yeah, and if you look at what we're... That's always the case. And if you look at how we're having those pings go, it's a holistic experiential foodie excursion. Yeah, listen. If you're a guy and you guys are gaming and then you go out to eat with your friends, nothing wrong with that. But if you're just sitting at the restaurant and you're not experiencing anything new, you're not learning anything new about the food, you're not talking to other people. Nobody watch a Mr. History video about this country. Yeah, and you're not talking to the waiter or the owner or building that relationship. I mean, these are all things that are beneficial to your life. They really make your life better, honestly. It makes your life more fun and interesting to know people that own restaurants, that own bars, that own stores, that own markets. It's fun, you know, and that's your neighborhood. It builds an Asian world. So you need to derive some other value other than just the tasty calories. Other than the numbiness. Yeah, and I think like this, foodies... Listen, it's just another thing to be nerdy about. And we're nerdy about food. I mean, we had to get nerdy about... You know, I'm nerdy about chili oil. You know what I mean? Like we've tried a bunch of chili oils. I've eaten all like 25 different brands. You know what I mean? And so I'm saying like there's nothing wrong with being nerdy about it, but it's like how many... What are... How many things can you be nerdy about? Like are you nerdy about anime, gaming? Are you nerdy about boba and food? Are you nerdy about... And you're not nerdy about... It's too much consumption. It's too much consumption. You might want to mix it up with some Huberman body hacking, weight training, martial arts. If you don't like martial arts, some ISO skill work with basketball. And some people get nerdy about the dating apps and trying to attract women. That's true too. Some people get nerdy about fashion. Some people get nerdy about skincare. Some people are nerdy about making money only. You only have so much time and energy to be nerdy about things, right? I'm nerdy about a lot of things. You're nerdy about things. You love basketball sneakers. You're nerdy about that. But it's like you can't... You have to understand what the things that you're nerdy about and how they impact your life. And if you're only nerdy about things that are not making you a stronger person, then you just have to acknowledge that. Just acknowledge it. I'm nerdy about consumption. But you have to know. And you have to know what that's going to do. And just this guy's frustrated. And instead of me telling you guys what to do, I'm just going to be like, hey, if you do that lifestyle, you are probably going to breed these results. That's very logical. That's just logical. So it is what it is. You choose your life. You got to take a honest look at your life and say what portion of my life is based around consumption and what portion of my life is being proactive, creating production. Yeah. I'd love like you guys to be at dinner and to be talking about, you know, building like an Asian-American blog together or creating content while you guys go eat friends. You guys have a group of three guys that you guys create content for businesses, you know, kind of like all the Instagram guys, like a hungry artist or righteous eats, you know, like these guys are adding to the world. Right, right, right. Shapeshifting people's behaviors by just highlighting different things. Anyway, let us know what you think of this Reddit post in the comment section below. Is being an Asian foodie, especially for an Asian guy overrated, could it even be damaging? You know, I always remember this lyric of food, Andrew, where he's like, too much of anything makes you an addict. Too much of anything, guys, even the nourishment of the soul food. Let us know what you think in the comment section below. Until next time, we're the Hop Hop Boys. Peace.